Trip To Cuba

DETROIT -- A couple will appeal a judge's fine of $5,250 for a trip to Cuba that they say had a humanitarian purpose, their attorney said Monday. Attorney Kurt Berggren said the fine was excessive and that he will file the appeal for Michael and Andrea McCarthy by the Thursday deadline. The McCarthys, of Port Huron, are Roman Catholics who traveled to Cuba in 2001 for a vacation but also took medicines with them and participated in religious services.

NEW YORK -- A spring-break trip to Cuba taken by students and a teacher from a New York City public high school has raised concerns about whether the group violated U.S. travel restrictions to the communist country. "We are investigating," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Monday. A city Department of Education spokesman said this month's trip to Cuba was not officially sanctioned by the Beacon School, though the school Web site featured a call for applications and a list of selected students, plus details of previous trips to the island.

Jose Feliciano has come under fire from Miami's Cuban exile community for agreeing to visit Cuba.The Grammy-winning folk singer accepted an invitation to receive an award this summer in Cuba on behalf of fellow Puerto Rican Daniel Santos, a pop singer who died of a heart attack in November.''Jose Feliciano, who for many years was blackballed in Cuba, now betrays us and goes to meet with the tyrant, Fidel Castro,'' said Tomas Garcia Fuste, news director of radio station WQBA-La Cubanisima.

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic -- President Leonel Fernandez left Thursday on a trip to Cuba, the United States and United Nations. Fernandez and Foreign Minister Carlos Morales Troncoso will first stop at the Nonaligned Movement summit in Havana. The president is scheduled to fly to Chicago on Sunday for meetings with politicians, academics and the Dominican community. He is expected to head to New York two days later to address the U.N. General Assembly. After stops in Philadelphia and Miami, Fernandez is to arrive back in the Caribbean country Sept.

NEW YORK -- A spring-break trip to Cuba taken by students and a teacher from a New York City public high school has raised concerns about whether the group violated U.S. travel restrictions to the communist country. "We are investigating," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Monday. A city Department of Education spokesman said this month's trip to Cuba was not officially sanctioned by the Beacon School, though the school Web site featured a call for applications and a list of selected students, plus details of previous trips to the island.

BELFAST, Northern Ireland -- Northern Irish republican leader Gerry Adams confirmed Thursday that he will go ahead with a trip to Cuba, although it could potentially damage his Sinn Fein party's standing in the United States. "I have a longstanding commitment to go to Cuba, and I intend to go there," Adams said. He declined to give further details about the trip or say when it would take place, adding more information would be given out in due time.

Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy, shrugging off sharp U.S. criticism of his trip to Cuba, began a visit to Havana on Tuesday that underscored Ottawa's difference with Washington concerning Cuba policy. Axworthy, accompanied by Secretary of State for Latin America and Africa Christine Stewart, flew into Havana for the highest-level visit by a Canadian official in two decades.

A senior Vatican official, Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran, will travel to Cuba next month for a visit that could pave the way for a meeting between President Fidel Castro, 70, and Pope John Paul, 76, diplomatic sources said Tuesday. The sources said Tauran, who is effectively the Vatican's foreign minister, would visit the communist-ruled island Oct. 25-29 at the invitation of the Cuban Foreign Ministry.

CUBAN LEADERS have shown interest in a proposal that Washington and Havana take small steps that could lead to more normal relations, Sen. Claiborne Pell said Wednesday. The Rhode Island Democrat, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said he believes the time has come ''to attempt to move towards more rational and normalized relations'' with the island nation. Pell returned on Monday from a five-day trip to Cuba that included a three-hour meeting with Fidel Castro.

DETROIT -- A couple will appeal a judge's fine of $5,250 for a trip to Cuba that they say had a humanitarian purpose, their attorney said Monday. Attorney Kurt Berggren said the fine was excessive and that he will file the appeal for Michael and Andrea McCarthy by the Thursday deadline. The McCarthys, of Port Huron, are Roman Catholics who traveled to Cuba in 2001 for a vacation but also took medicines with them and participated in religious services.

HAVANA -- Chinese President Hu Jintao launched a two-day trip to Cuba on Monday to meet with Fidel Castro and discuss possible business deals in the nickel, telecommunications and tourism sectors. In a written message given to the media upon arrival, Hu praised Cuba's socialist revolution and highlighted friendship between the two nations, saying "Chinese-Cuban ties have passed the test of changing and adverse international circumstances." The Chinese president flew in from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, which concluded Sunday in Santiago, Chile.

As American travelers become more and more comfortable -- and defiant -- about visiting Cuba, a Canadian travel club has begun marketing an Orlando-based trip to Havana. But some are warning that unsuspecting travelers could be breaking the law by visiting the communist country. The U.S. Treasury Department, which regulates travel to Cuba, has already raised its eyebrows at the new flights. "We are looking into it," Treasury Department spokeswoman Tasia Scolinos said. Beginning in October, the Havana Flying Club will offer $248 round-trip flights originating out of Orlando, Fort Lauderdale and Miami.

HAVANA -- There's no longer anything remarkable about the parade of congressional delegations visiting Fidel Castro's presidential palace these days. At least 20 U.S. representatives and four senators have come to Cuba so far this year on "fact-finding missions," often accompanied by agriculture executives hawking everything from Missouri rice and California beans to Washington apples. In addition, former President Carter and two farm state governors -- George Ryan of Illinois and North Dakota's John Hoeven -- visited this year.

WASHINGTON -- A possible trip to Cuba by former President Jimmy Carter has proponents of improved relations between the United States and the communist island nation hoping the end is near for the four-decade policy of isolating Havana politically and economically. Others aren't so sure, saying the Bush administration is likely to ignore Carter and his calls for lifting the embargo. Opponents of the visit say that if Carter goes, he should focus on helping dissidents and improving human rights, not improving commercial ties with farmers and big business in the United States.

Pope John Paul II will meet with Fidel Castro this week if the Cuban president requests an audience, the Vatican said Monday. Castro is scheduled to visit Rome this week for a U.N. food summit, and if he ''asks for an audience, he will be received,'' papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said. It would be the first meeting between the pope and Castro and could lead to a papal trip to Cuba.

HAVANA -- Chinese President Hu Jintao launched a two-day trip to Cuba on Monday to meet with Fidel Castro and discuss possible business deals in the nickel, telecommunications and tourism sectors. In a written message given to the media upon arrival, Hu praised Cuba's socialist revolution and highlighted friendship between the two nations, saying "Chinese-Cuban ties have passed the test of changing and adverse international circumstances." The Chinese president flew in from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, which concluded Sunday in Santiago, Chile.

WASHINGTON -- The first commercial shipment of food from the United States to Cuba in almost four decades is expected to leave New Orleans this morning on a two-day voyage to Havana. The 26,000 tons of corn, mostly for animal feed, is the first of several in the next few months as Cuba attempts to recover from the devastation that Hurricane Michelle caused last month. Archer Daniels Midland, the Illinois-based food giant shipping the corn, also has contracts to sell rice, soybeans and soybean meal to Cuba.

BELFAST, Northern Ireland -- Northern Irish republican leader Gerry Adams confirmed Thursday that he will go ahead with a trip to Cuba, although it could potentially damage his Sinn Fein party's standing in the United States. "I have a longstanding commitment to go to Cuba, and I intend to go there," Adams said. He declined to give further details about the trip or say when it would take place, adding more information would be given out in due time.